Charles M. Rice
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Charles Moen Rice (born August 25, 1952) is an American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate whose main area of research is the Hepatitis C virus. He is a professor of virology at the
Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...
in New York City and an adjunct professor at Cornell University and Washington University School of Medicine. At the time of the award he was a faculty at Rockefeller. Rice is a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
, member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
and was president of the American Society for Virology from 2002 to 2003. He received the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, jointly with Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager and
Michael J. Sofia Michael J. Sofia is a chemist whose main research focus is hepatitis C virus and hepatitis B virus drug discovery. He was a co-recipient of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his work on hepatitis C in 2016 and of the Gertru ...
. Along with Michael Houghton and
Harvey J. Alter Harvey James Alter (born September 12, 1935) is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the i ...
, he was awarded the
2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the American virologists Harvey J. Alter (b. 1935), Michael Houghton (b. 1949) and Charles M. Rice (b. 1952) "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus." During the award ceremony on Dec ...
"for the discovery of
Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
virus."


Early life and education

Charles Moen Rice was born on August 25, 1952, in Sacramento, California. Rice graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BS in zoology from University of California, Davis, in 1974. In 1981, he received his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology, where he studied
RNA virus An RNA virus is a virusother than a retrovirusthat has ribonucleic acid (RNA) as its genetic material. The nucleic acid is usually single-stranded RNA ( ssRNA) but it may be double-stranded (dsRNA). Notable human diseases caused by RNA viruses ...
es in the laboratory of James Strauss. He remained at Caltech for four years to do postdoctoral research.


Career

After his postdoctoral work, Rice moved with his research group to the Washington University School of Medicine in 1986, where he remained until 2001. Rice has been the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor at Rockefeller University since 2001. He is also an adjunct professor at Washington University School of Medicine and Cornell University. He has served on committees for the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, and World Health Organization. He was the editor of '' Journal of Experimental Medicine'' from 2003 to 2007, '' Journal of Virology'' from 2003 to 2008, and ''
PLoS Pathogens ''PLOS Pathogens'' is a peer-reviewed open-access medical journal. All content in ''PLOS Pathogens'' is published under the Creative Commons "by-attribution" license. ''PLOS Pathogens'' began operation in September 2005. It was the fifth journal o ...
'' from 2005 to present. He has been an author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications.


Research

While at Caltech, he was involved in researching the genome of Sindbis virus and the establishment of
flaviviruses ''Flavivirus'' is a genus of positive-strand RNA viruses in the family ''Flaviviridae''. The genus includes the West Nile virus, dengue virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, yellow fever virus, Zika virus and several other viruses which may cau ...
as their own family of viruses. The strain of yellow fever virus he used for this work was eventually used for the development of the yellow fever vaccine. While exploring Sindbis virus at Washington University in St. Louis, Rice described how he produced infectious flavivirus
RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...
in the laboratory in a 1989 paper published in ''The New Biologist''. The paper attracted the attention of
Stephen Feinstone Stephen Mark Feinstone is a virologist who, together with Albert Kapikian and Robert Purcell, co-identified the Hepatitis A virus (HAV) in 1973. He completed his undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University graduating in 1966, and complete ...
who was studying hepatitis C virus and suggested that Rice use the technique to develop a vaccine for
hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
. In 1997, Rice cultured the first infectious clone of hepatitis C virus for use in studies on chimpanzees in whom the virus was also endemic. In 2005, Rice was also part of a team that showed that a strain of an acute form of the virus identified in a human patient can be forced to replicate in a laboratory setting. Rice's contribution to hepatitis C research has earned him many awards.


Awards

* 1986
Pew Charitable Trust The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948. With over 6 billion in assets, its stated mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, a ...
scholarship * 2004 Elected fellow,
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
* 2005 Elected member,
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
* 2005 Elected fellow, American Academy of Microbiology * 2007 M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize * 2015
Robert Koch Prize The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...
* 2016 Artois-Baillet Latour Health Prize * 2016 Lasker Award * 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Charles M. 1952 births Living people University of California, Davis alumni California Institute of Technology alumni American virologists Recipients of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award Rockefeller University faculty American Nobel laureates Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Nobel laureates affiliated with Missouri Members of the National Academy of Medicine Washington University in St. Louis faculty Washington University School of Medicine faculty